• Journal of Korean Library and Information Science Society
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.291-312
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• 2005

The purpose of this study is to compare the reading effects of face-to-face reading discussion with those of web-based leading discussion. For doing this, 1 made experimental processes: firstly, to select two discussion methods(face-to-face and web-based) on the reading discussion, secondly to apply each of those methods to experimental groups(2 classrooms, 72 middle school students). The results were that there were no differences from both discussion methods in the understanding the book, in the performance degree on discussion process among higher level groups, but the web-based reading discussion model had an impact on the attitude degree of the reading discussion, the preference degree of reading, the attendance degree of reading discussion, and especially, in the lower level groups, the web-based reading discussion method was better for the attendance degree of leading discussion, the attitude of reading discussion than the face-to-face reading discussion.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.26
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• pp.465-485
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• 2012

Instructing "History of Spanish Literature" class faces various types of limits and obstacles, just as other foreign language literature history classes do. Majority of students enter the university without having any previous spanish learning experience, which means, for them, even the interpretation of the text itself can be difficult. Moreover, the fact that "History of Spanish Literature" is traced all the way back to the Middle Age, students encounter even more difficulties and find factors that make them feel the class is not interesting. To list several, such factors include the embarrassment felt by the students, antiquated expressions, literature texts filled with deliberately broken grammars, explanations written in pretentious vocabularies, disorderly introduction of many different literary works that ignores the big picture, in which in return, reduces academic interest in students, and finally general lack of interest in literate itself due to the fact that the following generation is used to visual media. Although recognizing such problem that causes the distortion of the value of our lives and literature is a very imminent problem, there has not even been a primary discussion on such matter. Thus, the problem of what to teach in "History of Spanish Literature" class remains unsolved so far. Such problem includes wether to teach the history of authors and literature works, or the chronology of the text, the correlations, and what style of writing to teach first among many, and how to teach to read with criticism, and how to effectively utilize the limited class time to teach. However, unfortunately, there has not been any sorts of discussion among the insructors. I, as well, am not so proud of myself either when I question myself of how little and insufficiently did I contemplate about such problems. Living in the era so called the visual media era or the crisis of humanity studies, now there is a strong need to bring some change in the education of literature history. To suggest a solution to make such necessary change, I recommended to incorporate the visual media, the culture or custom that students are accustomed to, to the class. This solution is not only an attempt to introduce various fields to students, superseding the mere literature reserch area, but also the result that reflects the voice of students who come from a different cultural background and generation. Thus, what not to forget is that the bottom line of adopting a new teaching method is to increase the class participation of students and broaden the horizon of the Spanish literature. However, the ultimate goal of "History of Spanish Literature" class is the contemplation about humanity, not the progress in linguistic ability. Similarly, the ultimate goal of university education is to train students to become a successful member of the society. To achieve such goal, cultural approach to the literature text helps not only Spanish learning but also pragmatic education. Moreover, it helps to go beyond of what a mere functional person does. However, despite such optimistic expectations, foreign literature class has to face limits of eclecticism. As for the solution, as mentioned above, the method of teaching that mainly incorporates cultural text is a approach that fulfills the students with sensibility who live in the visual era. Second, it is a three-dimensional and sensible approach for the visual era, not an annotation that searches for any ambiguous vocabularies or metaphors. Third, it is the method that reduces the burdensome amount of reading. Fourth, it triggers interest in students including philosophical, sociocultural, and political ones. Such experience is expected to stimulate the intellectual curiosity in students and moreover motivates them to continues their study in graduate school, because it itself can be an interesting area of study.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.231-238
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• 2010

The anthropomorphism of brands, defined as seeing human beings in brands (Puzakova, Kwak, and Rosereto, 2008) is the focus of this study. Specifically, the research objective is to understand the ways in which brands are rendered humanlike. By analyzing consumer readings of stories found on food product packages we intend to show how marketers and consumers humanize a spectrum of brands and create meanings. Our research question considers the possibility that a single brand may host multiple or single meanings, associations, and personalities for different consumers. We start by highlighting the theoretical and practical significance of our research, explain why we turn our attention to packages as vehicles of brand meaning transfer, then describe our qualitative methodology, discuss findings, and conclude with a discussion of managerial implications and directions for future studies. The study was designed to directly expose consumers to potential vehicles of brand meaning transfer and then engage these consumers in free verbal reflections on their perceived meanings. Specifically, we asked participants to read non-nutritional stories on selected branded food packages, in order to elicit data about received meanings. Packaging has yet to receive due attention in consumer research (Hine, 1995). Until now, attention has focused solely on its utilitarian function and has generated a body of research that has explored the impact of nutritional information and claims on consumer perceptions of products (e.g., Loureiro, McCluskey and Mittelhammer, 2002; Mazis and Raymond, 1997; Nayga, Lipinski and Savur, 1998; Wansik, 2003). An exception is a recent study that turns its attention to non-nutritional packaging narratives and treats them as cultural productions and vehicles for mythologizing the brand (Kniazeva and Belk, 2007). The next step in this stream of research is to explore how such mythologizing activity affects brand personality perception and how these perceptions relate to consumers. These are the questions that our study aimed to address. We used in-depth interviews to help overcome the limitations of quantitative studies. Our convenience sample was formed with the objective of providing demographic and psychographic diversity in order to elicit variations in consumer reflections to food packaging stories. Our informants represent middle-class residents of the US and do not exhibit extreme alternative lifestyles described by Thompson as "cultural creatives" (2004). Nine people were individually interviewed on their food consumption preferences and behavior. Participants were asked to have a look at the twelve displayed food product packages and read all the textual information on the package, after which we continued with questions that focused on the consumer interpretations of the reading material (Scott and Batra, 2003). On average, each participant reflected on 4-5 packages. Our in-depth interviews lasted one to one and a half hours each. The interviews were tape recorded and transcribed, providing 140 pages of text. The products came from local grocery stores on the West Coast of the US and represented a basic range of food product categories, including snacks, canned foods, cereals, baby foods, and tea. The data were analyzed using procedures for developing grounded theory delineated by Strauss and Corbin (1998). As a result, our study does not support the notion of one brand/one personality as assumed by prior work. Thus, we reveal multiple brand personalities peacefully cohabiting in the same brand as seen by different consumers, despite marketer attempts to create more singular brand personalities. We extend Fournier's (1998) proposition, that one's life projects shape the intensity and nature of brand relationships. We find that these life projects also affect perceived brand personifications and meanings. While Fournier provides a conceptual framework that links together consumers’ life themes (Mick and Buhl, 1992) and relational roles assigned to anthropomorphized brands, we find that consumer life projects mold both the ways in which brands are rendered humanlike and the ways in which brands connect to consumers' existential concerns. We find two modes through which brands are anthropomorphized by our participants. First, brand personalities are created by seeing them through perceived demographic, psychographic, and social characteristics that are to some degree shared by consumers. Second, brands in our study further relate to consumers' existential concerns by either being blended with consumer personalities in order to connect to them (the brand as a friend, a family member, a next door neighbor) or by distancing themselves from the brand personalities and estranging them (the brand as a used car salesman, a "bunch of executives.") By focusing on food product packages, we illuminate a very specific, widely-used, but little-researched vehicle of marketing communication: brand storytelling. Recent work that has approached packages as mythmakers, finds it increasingly challenging for marketers to produce textual stories that link the personalities of products to the personalities of those consuming them, and suggests that "a multiplicity of building material for creating desired consumer myths is what a postmodern consumer arguably needs" (Kniazeva and Belk, 2007). Used as vehicles for storytelling, food packages can exploit both rational and emotional approaches, offering consumers either a "lecture" or "drama" (Randazzo, 2006), myths (Kniazeva and Belk, 2007; Holt, 2004; Thompson, 2004), or meanings (McCracken, 2005) as necessary building blocks for anthropomorphizing their brands. The craft of giving birth to brand personalities is in the hands of writers/marketers and in the minds of readers/consumers who individually and sometimes idiosyncratically put a meaningful human face on a brand.